This memorial park, which brings you face-to-face with the destructive power of the peninsula’s volcanoes, serves as an important place of remembrance for the people of Shimabara.
On November 17, 1990, almost 200 years after a catastrophic eruption leveled Shimabara and forever changed its landscape, Mt. Fugendake (1,359 m) awoke once more. The eruption began with a swarm of earthquakes beneath Tachibana Bay. In the months and years that followed, the mountain erupted multiple times, releasing lava, ash clouds, and―its greatest hazard―pyroclastic flow. The danger would not end until 1995, when the new peak, Mt. Heisei Shinzan (1,483 m), finally settled.
Some of the farthest-reaching damage to the town occurred on August 8 and 14, 1992, when heavy rainfall washed debris down the east side of Mt. Fugendake and completely filled the usually dry Mizunashi riverbed. Once the mud flow, called a lahar, reached the seashore, it began to back up into the river, eventually breaching the riverbank and completely burying many houses.
This park stands on several meters of debris. There are 11 houses preserved and exhibited here; the three under the tent were moved here to protect them from the elements and to better display the damage caused by the lahar. Luckily, the houses had already been evacuated when the flow hit.